The present invention relates generally to the field of transaction form systems and methods, and more particularly, to systems and methods for providing secure customer slips for use with traditional manual credit card imprinting techniques.
Credit and charge card fraud is an increasing problem in society. Such fraud costs businesses billions of dollars each year, and costs individuals unwanted time and inconvenience in getting their credit cleared. Charge card companies have developed a variety of methods to make charge card transactions more secure. Some include a photograph of the cardholder to assist a merchant in making a positive identification of the user. Others may include holograms, secret imprints, or hidden images, thereby preventing forgers from making new cards with a stolen cardholder account number.
Despite these improvements, there remains ample opportunity for fraudulent individuals to victimize innocent credit card holders. For example, card fraud can be perpetrated when a thief obtains a customer's discarded receipts or carbons, and then uses the account number to illegally obtain goods, services, or cash. What is more, charge card account information from lost or stolen customer receipts can be used as a source of personal information for those who would commit identity theft. Standard transaction form systems and method may not provide sufficient protection against the security vulnerabilities discussed above. For example, forms that are currently used with manual imprinters provide customer copies that include a complete image of the customer's account number.
In light of the above, it would be desirable to provide improved transaction form systems and methods, particularly for use with manual imprinters such as rolling imprinters, stamp imprinters, including flatbed and pump-handle models, and the like.